Back home from the farm , with a bag full of knowledge and goodies !

      Dear blogie , and readers of course , i was not able to write these days since i've been gone from home ... more specifically at a farm that produces milk . A friend of mine is the manager , boss , whatever you wanna call him there ... or probably you can call him the cowboy chief .

     It was an amazing experience , i've learned so much being just 5 days there , and probably in the future i'll go back again and learn even more about cows , producing milk and all .

     So many standards , and this guy's passion for cows and his farm is limitless , he is pretty much like myself with the cooking and we got along in just a matter of seconds . Personally i think this is the start of something great , a huge friendship and i also think there is something stored for the both of us , and surerly our paths will cross again in the world of great restaurants and farms .

      So basically i was there for a few days not just to learn about producing milk , cows but also advertising , and also to cook for them since they lacked behind all that hard work some good propper and healthy food .

    At first he told me his grandmother used to make all the meals for them , but unfortunately his gramma sucks in preparing food and it was extremly disgusting , bland and unedible . At first i thaught this was a joke since usually grammas make such good food sometimes even better than the ones you eat in our restaurants , it was really hard for me to believe she just couldn't cook untill one day ....

    It was about 8 o' clock in the morning his gramma woke up early chopped a chicken and wanted to make a chicken soup . After a while his mother came to me and said '' Please can you do something with this soup it's gross and unedible , and it's the same every sunday , is it possible to fix it ? ''

     In that moment i thaught about my mentor in the culinary world Dori and she always used to say '' Anything can be fixed in a kitchen , that's the beauty of being a chef , you can create and repair at the same time '' , so i got motivated ... gave a stroll in the garden , picked up a ton of herbs ... such as carrots , celery , parsley , onions , potatoes ... every good and fresh thing you can find ... at the end that soup turned out an amazing Yumminess ! It tasted so fresh and the room was full of lovely aromas from the vegetables ... it was pure art for me .

        The people from the farm ate it so fast and so passionate :)) that in just minutes there was nothing left .
        I felt more or less as Ratattouile , you know the little rat that went to Paris and became a chef ... haha i just love that movie one of my favorites , but anyway that was a great succes and mostly the days that came along where also full of different recepies , full of flavour and excitement .

     
  As a thank you my friend the cowboy , also helpped me in advertising and promoting myself , he kinda told me that i needed a logo to identify and separate myself from the other chefs , a logo that i will carry with me all the time .  And after hours and hours of work we came up with something and i hope you guys like it aswell .... I for one am extremly happy and pleassed with this logo .

Anyway here it is , hope you enjoyed my post , and yeah i know i promissed i would write about the bechamel sauce but i will get to that aswell later on .


Thank you guys again , and see you in my next post                    Have fun cooking  !

Just another normal typical day

           Hey guys , i think this will probably the shortest post i've ever written but like i said i am not posting only recepies on this blog , but also usefull tips , informations and also notes on my whereabouts and my position on the culinary path .

         This will surerly be a short summer since i have a lot to do untill i reach the culinary school in Paris .
          I've started in going deeper and deeper in the french cuisine and patisery , but also into their language   which i find it really beautifull and amazing .

         It truly is a difficult language but it's worth giving it all in learning it , trust me  . I mean the sounds , the accent ... pure romance , i advise you dear readers to give it a try  .

        Anyway  talking about french , i am off doing my homework since in about 20 minutes i got french classes and i haven't done anything  , except watching the brioche dough rise on youtube .... that truly looked yummy .


So no more chit - chat , i'm off !

See you guys on my next post , which will probably be about the bechamel sauce , also known as the white sauce , and it is one of the mother sauces of French cuisine .                                

Bye Bye :D !

Mille Feuille with summer berries and lemon curd

            I am telling you guys this recipe will blow you away ..... full of sunshine flavours , the moment you take the first bite you taste summer ... an amazing recipe fit for a King  !

  Before i go on and give you the recipe i want you to know a bit about mille feuille .

 Basically mille feuille means " a thousand layers" , it is one of the french classics as it dates back from the 19th century . You can also find it in the cookbooks and internet as "Napoleon" ( do not ask me why it is called napoleon aswell but i promise the next time i make another one i'll be sure to find out ) . Basically the classic recipe uses a vanilla custard in the middle and topped with icing sugar , caramel or chocolate glaze and the dough is either puff pastry or fillo pastry .

   This dessert is light , crunchy ....  a really elegant and fast desert to make . The nicest thing about this desert you can style it in so many ways you can't imagine .

   The way i've chosen to style it this time is with fresh berries and lemon curd , which i think is a good ideea since we require something fresh during this hot summer days . And men trust me the ladies will go ''MAD'' for this one .

     So the ingredients that you need calculated for about 4 persons are :

                      - 3 eggs
                      - 2 lemons
                      -  200 g of normal sugar
                      -  160 g of unsaltted butter
                      - 300 gr of raspberries , 300 g of blueberries , 300 g of red currants (coacaze rosii ) ,
                                                              you can also add strawberries aswell if you find any ,
                                                              unfortunatelly i didn't.
                      - 1 package of fillo pastry ( you can buy from the supermarket , or you can make it yourself
                                                                up to you , personally i think it's best to buy it since it takes a lot
                                                                 of time to make it yourself , and it's kinda the same result , but
                                                                 do as you wish :D )
                      - icing sugar


Before i start in telling you how to make it i will show you how the classic mille feuille looks like and after that i'll  go on with the recipe and at the end give you some pictures with a different version of a mille feuille but the ideea of it is the same , it's roots are there  ! :D

 

Here is the classical made with a vanilla custard and on top a chocolate glaze .
 

 
      Now back to my version  .   First off let's wash those dirty hands  , get your pan ready , your pot and of courses your washed and dried fruit .

      Let's first of all make the lemon curd . In a pot add 2 eggs , 200 g of sugar , the zest of 1 lemon , the juice of 2 lemons and 60 g of butter (taste it and see if it needs more sugar , if it does add more if not then go with it )  . place the pot on a low heat and keep whisking until the mixture thickens .

      When it did pass the lemon curd through a sieve , cover it with cling film (folie de plastic) , and put it in the fridge untill it cools down completly .

     Next take the fillo pastry , beat 1 egg and brush 1 sheet of fillo pastry with the egg wash and add another sheet of fillo pastry over it brush it again with egg wash and add another fillo pastry over it .

    Use a round cutter or glass to cut your pastry .
    Dust a plate with icing sugar and place your cut fillo pastry on it and dust icing sugar on top of them aswell.
 
    Next in a sauce pan melt the 100 g of butter on a very low heat untill it forms a foam on top . Let it cool down and take the foam out with a spoon ( this process is also known as clariffying the butter , which means taking the water and the  fat out of the butter , so the butter does not reach high temperatures that fast and does not burn that easy  ) .

   Pour the clarrified butter in a pan on a medium heat and when the butter is hot add the cut pastries .
   It literally takes seconds on each side to cook , up to 8 , 10 seconds .
   Place your cooked pastry either on a wooden chopping boards ( just not on a napkin it will stick ) .
   Take your lemon curd out of the fridge and as you can see it thickened even more ( a real yummies from the pastry world ) .

   Add a bit of lemon curd on the plate , and place the first sheet of pastry on it so it won't move .
   Then add some berries on the pastry sheet and top them with lemon curd.
   Add the second pastry sheet and top it with lemon curd , add berries on it then lemon curd on the berries.
   Add the third pastry sheet and top it with icing sugar .

   Add some additional berries on the plate for decorating and top them with icing sugar .
 
                                                   And that's it , a nice fresh summer version of mille feuille :

   Enjoy guys and girls :D



   Bon Apettit !

An amazing way on how to prepare chicken breast !

   Hey guys , i am back again , i hope you are still reading my blog .... i have been quite busy these days so i barerly had time to breath let alone to write in my blogg .

  So now i just realized i got a glimpse of spare time and i thaught why not write for my dear readers , since i have a mega recipe i really want to share with you guys .

 First of all i am no longer in Cluj , yeah the city i went to university .... i kinda miss it since i was really used to it , it became more or less my home and the place i learnt how to become a proper man . The people there helped me a lot in the process and i thank them .

 This blog post is ment for my friends in Cluj and i since i respect them a lot , i think i was the luckiest person to get such friends and mentors in my life .... some people never get that lucky , but i did ... and they inspired me not only in becoming a man but persuing my dream no matter what .

 At first i thaught Jamie Oliver s culinary school was the choice for my future but aparently not ... i was sent in
the other side of the road and that is the culinary school in Paris called "Le Cordon Bleu" . Thing is i always was attracted to french cooking , theyr lovely wines , cheeses , patiserrie , cuisine it is pure love to me .

So this winter i am heading to the culinary school in Paris and at the moment i am in Arad and raising with each passing day money for my culinary path and once i get there i ll make sure i will be the best in what i do and make first of all myself proud . Food is everything to me and i think Paris will become my personal culinary playground .  Memory of Julia Child ... watch out Cause Here I Come !!!

      Anyway let us go back on track and get on with the recipe. I am telling you this recipe will blow your mind and once you have tried it  you will do it over and over again  , it really is a recipe you can rely on anytime you have a guest or someone you really want to impress . This recepy delivers that effect .

   The ingredients you need are : - 1 pack of chicken breast deboned and no skin
                                                 - 1 bunch of rosemary sticks
                                                 - 1 lemon
                                                 - parmesan
                                                 - some proschiutto crudo (2 packs , you can buy from the supermarket)
                                                 - pepper
                                                 - olive oil

 The first thing you need to do is obviously wash your hands . Then get the filetted breats and as you look at them you can see that they are not even the meat is somehow tick at another end and thinner at the other end .What you need to do is make them even before we even start in doing something with them .

  Use some cling film ( folie de plastic ) on a table and another cling film over the chicken breast and use something flat and heavy to pound the chicken breast , it is important to be flat since we do not want to bruise the chicken we just want to make it even a bit .

  After that take some rosemary sticks , take off the leaves and chop them finely . add them over the chicken breast , not much just a bit , then grate some parmesan it is important you grate enough parmesan to cover the whole chicken breast , then grate a bit of lemon zest ( not much just a tiny bit , trust me it will make a huge difference ) .

   Then just sprinkle some freshly ground pepper and cover with proschiutto ( it is important you cover the whole chicken breast so feel free to use 2 slices or 3 slices of proschiutto on one chicken breast as much as you need to cover the whole breast ) .

  Preheat the pan on a medium heat , then add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and place the chicken breast with the proschiutto upside down ( you need a lot of confidence in doing this , do not worry if you can not get this right on the first attempt i can assure you the second will be a succes ) . You need about 6 minutes cooking time per breast , 3 minutes on each side .


                  Just serve it with some mashed potatoes and some green salad , and if you want to take this to a whole new level just drizzle 2 3 drops of balsamic vinegar and trust me by doing that you will not regret it .

      This dish will save you over and over again when the time comes to either impress or crave a nice juice piece of chicken breast , no salt needed at all on the meat since the proschiutto and parmesan gives the chicken enough salt ... perfect seasoning  . !

                                  Have fun with this dish and good luck ! Remember confidence is the key to succes.
                                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                             Bon Appetit